In advance of the release of Brave New Weird: The Best New Weird Horror, Vol. 1 next week, I sat down for an interview with Matt Blairstone from Tenebrous Press to discuss writing, weird horror, and the ghost outside my bedroom door.
The book is available for preorder in print and ebook formats. Grab your copy today.
My flash fiction stalker story Influenced has been accepted by The Stygian Lepus, a new publication debuting in March 2023. It’s a story about blurring the lines between reality and fantasy, and what happens when your dreams finally come true.
The stranger passes his purchases over the Home Depot self-checkout scanner. Sweat glistens on his round face.
Trash bags. Duct tape. Hammer. Bleach. Scrub brush. Hacksaw. Plastic tarp.
He pays with cash.
My cyberpunk story Set For Life has been reprinted in MYTHIC #20. It’s the prequel to my novella Override, about a man’s first day on the job picking up bodies for Syntech and the disturbing secret about where they come from.
Lifting bodies wasn’t like lifting boxes. Boxes were symmetrical. Structured. You could lift properly: squat down, straighten your spine, lift with your legs. Bodies were limp. Awkward. Their limbs flopped in odd directions. He still hadn’t figured out the best way to lift one without damaging it. Or himself. Or both.
My techno-horror story Blame has been included in the preliminary ballot for the Stoker Awards. This story was originally published by The Dread Machine and was selected as a 2022 Brave New Weird award winner (available to pre-order now in print or ebook).
Blame is a “found footage” story consisting of emails, Slack conversations, Reddit threads, phone transcripts, and more unusual artifacts like git commits, JIRA tickets, door entry logs … even a Walmart receipt.
Like many found footage tales, the story is ultimately pieced together based on incomplete information. Multiple reads of the story should reveal new hidden details that may change your interpretation of the ending.
You can read Blame for free here.
My flash fiction story Before has been accepted by Dread Stone Press for an upcoming issue of Dose of Dread. It’s about a baby in the womb who suddenly realizes she’s not alone.
I don’t know where she came from, or when she appeared. I just know that I’m not alone in here anymore. There is another now. A Not-Mother. A Not-Me. A Third.
My horror drabble In Sickness has been accepted by Trembling With Fear from Horror Tree. For better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health…
My dystopian sci-fi thriller Unarmed has been accepted into Rebellion Lit’s The Start anthology. It’s a story about a woman reclaiming her bodily autonomy to fight back against a cult-like authoritarian leader who murdered her daughter.
The amputation was the easy part.
Two of my drabbles—Showtime and He Has His Father’s Eyes—have been published in the Year Four anthology by Black Hare Press. Both were previously published on the Dark Moments website: Showtime for the Circus theme and He Has His Father’s Eyes for the Nephilim theme.
My cyberpunk story A Free Man has been accepted by the Simultaneous Times podcast by Space Cowboy Books. In a world where you can purchase a synthetic replica of a person from a vending machine, the best person to frame for a crime you committed may be … yourself.
The glass door slid open with a whoosh, releasing a rush of supercooled air into the store. Steam swirled and spiraled around the synthetic as he stepped from the fab unit and smiled up at his human father. “Hey, Dad. Where’s Mom?”
A sob hitched in the man’s chest. He hugged the boy, then took his hand. “Come on. Let’s go find her.”
My body horror drabble Only We has been accepted into the Love Me, Love Me Not anthology by Black Hare Press. How close can a couple get before they’re not a couple anymore?
Warren Benedetto 